Here's my reasoning:
Nonfree stuff isn't part of Debian(tm), and never can be. The
current scheme allows _only_ Debian developers to create packages for
non-free, which lends an aura of officialness. Take non-free completely
off of the ftp.debian.org (and mirror) system. Create a
userland.debian.org site (or something similar) which allows non-Debian
people to upload stuff in addition to Debian maintainers. There would,
of course, be lots of notices about how "Nothing here is officially
sanctioned by Debian" and the like. Move all of the current non-free
stuff there.
Perhaps we should get in the habit of pgp (gpg) signing the
Packages.gz files, so that apt could check and see if a mirror is using
the right file, and warn users that they're installing non-Debian
software if they use such a site.
The stuff in contrib, IMO, belongs in Main. The GPL says nothing
about usefulness of software. Of course, I've got no idea how to resolve
the dependency problems this raises.
Will
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